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Monday, July 15, 2013

To Be a Cat by Matt Haig

To Be a Cat by Matt Haig

Copyright 2012

Corgi (a division of Random House) - Children's Fantasy/Middle Reader

312 pp.

From the cover:

What if I told you that tomorrow you'd wake up as a cat? That's right. You heard me. A cat. Whiskers, fur, four paws, a tail -- the real deal. You might not believe me. But really, you should be thanking me. Most people don't have any kind of warning, you see. It comes as a complete shock to them. It came as a shock to Barney Willow.

My little synopsis:

Barney Willow isn't very confident. The kids pick on him at school and the head teacher seems to have a vendetta against him, though he can't say why. His parents are divorced and his father has disappeared. The only real light in his life is his best friend, Rissa.

What Barney doesn't realize is that cats are magic. And, when you wish to be a cat, you can trade places with one. After Barney becomes a cat, he discovers something much more sinister is going on than just a simple magic bit of switcheroo. Can Barney stay alive long enough to become human, again?

Best opening, ever:

Here is a secret I shouldn't really tell you, but I will because I just can't help it. It's too big. Too good. OK, sit down, get ready, brace yourself, have some emergency chocolate handy. Squeeze a big cushion. Here it is:

Cats are magic.

~p. 1

The first chapter had me laughing out loud and it stays funny but it's equal parts humorous and creepy. As books for young readers go,To Be a Cat is awfully entertaining. I read it in two big gulps. Matt Haig has a delicious sense of humor and the story is unique enough to keep surprising even an adult.

Highly recommended - A delightful story with a likable young hero, a quirky sidekick, a nicely sinister arch enemy and a clever storyline. I learned about Matt Haig via Twitter (where he is one of my tweeps) and decided to start with a children's book about a cat for obvious reasons (Crazy Cat Lady alert).

Good choice and now I'm anxious to read The Humans, Haig's latest adult novel. In fact, I regret not picking up a copy in London. It has a beautiful British cover but the American cover is hideous. I can't imagine why they went with that image. Wait, I'll show you:

American cover at left.

British cover at right.

Colorful vs. . . . what? Were they going for "striking"? A gorgeous, colorful cover is much more likely to grab my attention. I came perilously close to buying it but restrained myself because it was a hardback and I try to shoot for buying only paperbacks when I travel. But, now I really want a copy. I'm just going to have to go back to London. That's all there is to it.

I purchased my copy of To Be a Cat at Foyle's (the flagship store on Charing Cross Road -- go there if you're ever in London; you'll love it).

He's pretty much an ideal for an author on Twitter - doesn't just repeat his books over and over, but interacts and posts interesting stuff. His name is also familiar to me from his brave piece about depression in The Telegraph last month. I have The Radleys on my TBR at the moment.

Yes, exactly. Caroline Leavitt, Alex George and Brandon Jones are all great about that, too. I typically don't follow authors who post nothing but links to their book or excerpts. That gets tiresome very quickly. He has written some terrific articles about depression. I've read 2 of them and loved them both. Wish my depression had gone that way. I wrote prolifically before I became depressed (about 15 years ago) and then just stopped writing fiction completely.

Ooooh, you have The Radleys! I need to add you to my sidebar so I don't miss that review. :)

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Bookfool periodically whispers unusual words and disappears in a puff of smoke. New review policy can be seen below by clicking on the Eat, Sleep, Read image. All material (including photos, but excluding most cover images) is my own unless otherwise stated and thus protected by copyright. Please leave a comment on any post to request permission to use content from this blog.